Introduction to Cybertino
Cybertino is the world’s first interactive NFT platform for influencers and fans. CYBER protocol is the underlying NFT protocol and infrastructure for interactive, collaborative and programmable NFTs.
The existing influencer-fan relationship is:
- Single-directional, as fans can only buy ready-made merchandise that are offered in influencers’ official stores.
- Arbitraged by the centralized social media platforms, as fans need to pay the fan-club membership fees to the social platforms (e.g. Weibo) that acts as the organizing Layer.
Fans want more sovereignty in the process. They’d like to participate in the design of the merchandise, compete for the attention of the influencers, and get rewarded for their involvement and contribution.
Influencers want to monetize their influence with virtual goods at a high premium, but lack a tool suite to systematically produce high quality digital merchandise. Influencers would rather ditch the fee charged by the community engagement agents (the Web 2.0 social media platforms) and give directly back to the community members who have supported them along the way. They’d like to have continuous interaction with the community to retain their attention (as in today’s world, attention is the true scarce commodity).
1. Most influencers are not artists, and they may not be able to create high-quality NFT art pieces consistently. The value of the influencer’s NFT, therefore, lies more in their own influence instead of the NFT’s appealingness.
2. Influencers have different needs than most NFT artists. They desire strong community engagement with their fans. Current NFT marketplaces cannot satisfy their goals of community-building, interaction, and recognition of die-hard fans.
3. At the same time, unlike traditional NFT sales, fans hope to be recognized when they buy NFTs from their favorite influencers.
On Cybertino, fans and artists can participate in the drafting process, and co-creating NFTs with their favorite influencers. Fans can also suggest and vote for what NFTs they would like to collect next. Influencers’ communities can be very creative on the NFT design. For example, Pewdiepie has a fanart reddit submission page that he reviews and comments on in his videos regularly. Leveraging the CYBER Protocol, Pewdiepie could easily produce NFTs on a regular basis using a fanart as a “Layer” on top of the “Canvas”.
What if fans could receive exclusive audios or text messages from their favorite influencers through NFTs? We are introducing the world’s first interactive NFT that can contain a special Layer to store an upgradable voice message or a text message or a signature (e.g. Autograph). Influencers can intimately engage with fans by updating new messages into this Layer. Only those NFT holders will be able to receive the exclusive message.
A royalty payment will be charged on any NFT resale. A built-in revenue share system will be developed to fairly reward the fans and artists who co-create NFTs with influencers. Influencers can decide how they want to allocate the royalty to reward contributors.
The most active fans and top contributors will be displayed on the influencers’ home pages and will be easily recognized by influencers.
We believe NFTs, as an ideal form of digital assets, can fully unleash its potential if we can make it interactive, collaborative and programmable.
Here is an architecture overview
The CYBER protocol architecture diagram illustrates the workflow of how to create and update interactive NFTs.
A Canvas is a ERC1155 or ERC721 contract. Each canvas stores the information of composing Layers, including Layer ID, each Layer’s allowed boundary coordinates (x1, y1, x2, y2), center position coordinates (x, y), the final image url, and the soundFile url. A Canvas has an external re-render function that will be called if its composing Layer changes state. These configuration(s) should be available and verifiable to everyone. However, due to the high cost of storage on the Ethereum blockchain (other blockchains as well), not all information needs to be stored directly on chain, as long as it’s provable that the information is available elsewhere and its content has not been tampered with. InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) provides such a premise. Every file stored on the IPFS has a unique Content Identifier (CID) based on the cryptographic hash of the file content. We can package all the information needed into a JSON file and store it on the IPFS network continually. Then only the CID is stored on chain to save on storage cost via the Ethereum blockchain. If the file’s content is changed by a centralized party, its CID would change and no longer match the CID stored on chain. Also, anyone could verify the file is still available by looking up the CID on the IPFS network. Using IPFS is especially helpful for large size files like images, sound files and also large sets of configurational information. We will use IPFS for Layer’s configuration as well.
A Layer is an ERC721 contract with a single owner. Each Layer stores its available states that are defined at creation. Each state is a new image URL or a sound file URL. Each Layer also tracks its current state index so that, during a re-render, the Canvas would know which state is chosen by the Layer owner. Layers have two external functions updateState and appendState. UpdateState can be called by a module or the Layer owner to change within predefined states. AppendState is called by the Layer owner to append a pending state with an image. ApprovePendingState is called by the NFT creator or moderator to add a pending state to the available state list.
Autonomous Layers don’t have external functions to updateState, appendState or approvePendingState since the state only responds to a module’s data change. Thus, the creator needs to register the Layer with a module by providing an update logic func(data) -> stateIndex. We will go over the details in the next section of Module.
Modules are contracts that accept real-world data or recalculate on-chain data. Layers can register with modules to get automatic updates along with modules. A module stores data for Layers to query. It also stores all the Layers that use this module will utilize and how their states will change with new data. Each module has an external function register for Layers to call so the Layers could let the module know how the Layers state should react upon new data. This callback function could be first implemented on the Layer side stored as a mapping of data and state. Modules have two external functions, to update its data either on-chain or off-chain.
With the Canvas, creators can create public or exclusive content: an exclusive blog post or a livestream video. Only the owners of the Canvas NFTs have access to the exclusive content. Lock is a contract that guards the underlying content by restricting access based on the user’s possession of an accompanying key. When a lock is created, it grants access to users who have said accompanied key (Canvas NFT) to open it.
Modules need to get data updated periodically and it’s the Cybertino DAO’s responsibility to update these data correctly and on time.
The following are examples of how an influencer can create a batch of NFTs for their community:
- “Canvas” creation: The influencer can create a Cybertino NFT by first creating a “Canvas”. For example, this could be as simple as a cartoon art of their portrait wearing a white t-shirt.
- Implementing a “Layer”: The influencer can then add a “Layer” to the original “Canvas”. An example of a “Layer” is adding a textbox message on the “Canvas” which the influencer could change at any time (i.e “ New video live!” or “ Happy Taco Tuesday!”).
- Adding additional “Layers”: Additional “Layers” can be added by the influencer as well. The influencer could create another “Layer” to alter the artwork on the t-shirt of the “Canvas” or anything else cosmetic.
- Introducing a “Module”: Influencers can also add “Modules” to an NFT. A time “Module” is a time-based mechanism, where an NFTs appearance changes depending on if it is daytime or nighttime.
This is only a simple example of how influencers could create more engaging NFTs. NFTs are no longer just static images but an autonomous display based on real-world data and a powerful tool to engage with the community. Influencers can send out new messages and have their community members participate in the design. These upgrades and changes in the “Layer” will be shown in every NFT this batch and every owner will be able to see them. The possibilities of utilizing “Layers” to create unique NFTs are endless.
We hope you enjoyed this in-depth look into Cybertino and welcome to the next stage of the NFT revolution!